Editorial Content

Celebrating Killing the Free Press?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 3/30/26

Headline:  “Opinion | The FCC chair is openly cheering the weakening of the press”

Subhead:  “In a speech, he ticked through defunded outlets, ousted journalists and looming ownership changes — then said the president is ‘winning’ “

“President Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he detests the press, and for the past 10 years has waged a full-scale assault on it.

“He has used fascist tactics, such as calling the media ‘fake news’ and the ‘enemy of the people.’ His attacks include lawsuits, bans and threats. My colleague, Angela Fu, continues to document that assault in Poynter’s Press Freedom Watch — a list that is growing alarmingly longer by the day. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/brendan-carr-mission-accomplished-press-war/

Time to Speak Out?

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Article in The Guardian by David Smith, 3/27/26

Headline: ” ‘Break your silence’: Jane Fonda leads rally against Trump crackdown on arts and media”

Subhead:  “Actor outside Kennedy Center urges Americans to ‘stand tall against authoritarianism’ and resist free-speech threats”

“The actor Jane Fonda joined journalists, musicians and writers outside Washington’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday. . .”

“At a damp but defiant rally hosted by Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment, around a hundred invited guests gathered to hear speakers and singers rail against book bans, political censorship and other threats to free speech under Donald Trump.

“ ‘Today, books are being banned, plaques and monuments depicting historical events this administration wants to forget are being removed,’ Fonda said from a stage under a grey, rainy sky. ‘Museums, the National Endowment for the Arts, state arts councils, public broadcasting – they’re all being defunded.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/27/jane-fonda-kennedy-center-rally-trump

Media and Money

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Article in FAIR by Janine Jackson, 3/24/26

Headline:  ” ‘A Media System Built on Profit Is Incredibly Fragile’:”

Subhead:  “CounterSpin interview with Jim Naureckas on MAGA vs. the First Amendment”

“. . . All of the conflicts we were told we were either making up or exaggerating are out in broad daylight. The president is overtly handing control of the country’s media outlets to a tiny group of MAGA billionaires. The Trump-appointed head of the public interest–defending regulator is stating that any outlets that don’t toe the Trump line, wherever that is today, could lose their broadcasting license for that reason. . .”

“There is lots of informed, impassioned debate going on right now about the various nightmares unfolding in and from the US. What does it mean that that’s happening largely outside the still-influential news media outlets that have long shaped public understanding?. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/a-media-system-built-on-profit-is-incredibly-fragile/

Legacy Media Straitjacketed?

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Article in AlterNet by Matthew Rozsa, 3/23/26

Headline:  “Mainstream media is playing a dangerous game: mental health experts”

“President Donald Trump is a habitual liar who may also suffer from serious mental illness, a seasoned journalist argued on Monday — but the mainstream media is too cowardly to call it out.

“ ‘For a while now, I’ve been imploring the leaders of our top news organizations to call out Donald Trump’s derangement,’ wrote Dan Froomkin, editor of Press Watch and former journalist at The Huffington Post and The Intercept. ‘My argument is simple: It is the central, underlying explanation for everything else they’re covering.’

“Yet, as Froomkin pointed out, ‘They won’t do it. Their arguments: It would appear partisan; We don’t want to take sides; And (more reasonably) we prohibit the use of language associated with mental illness unless a person has been diagnosed as mentally ill. (I wrestle with a variation of this last one myself: How do you call him insane without stigmatizing insane people?)’ . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.alternet.org/normalizing-trump/

Defender of Public Media

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Article in Mother Jones by Michael Schiller and Reveal Staff, 3/19/26

Headline:  “Mr. Rogers and the Fight for Public Media”

Subhead:  “Take a trip to Mr. Rogers’ real life neighborhood in this special episode that celebrates the life and work of public media’s most famous defender.”

“On the anniversary of Fred Rogers birthday, we take a trip to Mr. Rogers’ real life neighborhood in this special episode that celebrates the life and work of public media’s most famous defender.

“Reveal’s Michael Schiller visits WQED in Pittsburgh for a look back at how Fred Rogers, the host of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, championed public television throughout its decades-long struggle to survive Washington politics.

View the episode at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/mr-rogers-neighborhood-public-media-birthday/

Rt. Wing Media Upset?

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Article in Media Matters by Noah Dowe, Alex Guiden & Ben Van Bloem, 3/18/26

Headline: “Some right-wing media figures are urging Trump to declare early victory and leave Iran”

Subhead:  “Newsmax host Michael Savage: ‘Is it possible we could just pack up and go home? Or must we kill half the population in the name of peace?’ “

“As President Donald Trump’s war with Iran continues, some right-wing commentators are urging the administration to ‘declare victory’ and ‘get out’ of Iran ‘before it gets much worse’. . .”

“Some right-wing figures are fearful of what a military quagmire in the Middle East would “do to us at the midterms,” and a number of right-wing media personalities are now urging the administration to save face by declaring victory. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/some-right-wing-media-figures-are-urging-trump-declare-early-victory-and-leave

“Winning” Against the Media?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 3/17/26

Headline:  “Opinion | Trump is bragging about the damage he’s done to the press”

Subhead:  “In a Truth Social post, the president cited high-profile TV news exits, public media defunding and canceled shows as proof he is ‘winning’ “

“Lost in the midst of President Donald Trump’s constant complaining about media coverage of the war in Iran, as well as FCC commissioner Brendan Carr’s threats to networks, was a weekend post on Trump’s Truth Social that revealed just how much contempt the president has toward the press.

“In the remarkably distressing post, Trump bragged about the damage he has done to the media.

“Under a section called “Gone,” Trump boasted of how PBS and NPR have been defunded. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/trump-truth-social-press-news-media/

Bad News Photos Not Allowed?

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 3/12/26

Headline:  “Opinion | You won’t believe why the Pentagon barred photographers from its briefings”

Subhead:  “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s aides objected to ‘unflattering’ photos of him — in the middle of a war”

“Boy, oh boy. These guys in the Trump administration. Just when you think they can’t get any more petty and thin-skinned and, to paraphrase one of their favorite words, snowflaky, they find another way to bellyache about something.

“The latest?

“The Washington Post’s Scott Nover writes, ‘The Defense Department has barred press photographers from briefings on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military conflict with Iran after they published photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that his staff deemed ‘unflattering,’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/pete-hegseth-unflattering-photos/

Media and Regime Collapse

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Article in Media Matters by John Knefel and Sophie Lawton, 3/12/26

Headline: “Right-wing media embrace “regime collapse” in Iran”

Subhead: “Fox’s Jack Keane: ‘You’re going to take that regime and put it on a pathway for its eventual collapse, and what follows after that is not particularly clear. And I think that’s OK.’ ”

“Prominent right-wing media figures have embraced regime collapse as a desirable, or at least acceptable, outcome of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Although most of these commentators are light on specifics, in many cases they acknowledge that what they’re calling for is something that looks more like a failed state than a transitional government. . .”

“. . .on March 4, prime-time host [Fox News] Jesse Watters praised the goal of regime collapse twice while cheerleading for the war in general. ‘Operation Epic Fury has entered a new phase — a shock and we campaign to trigger regime collapse,’ Watters said. ‘Anything can happen, but this war is off to the best start in American military history.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/right-wing-media-embrace-regime-collapse-iran

Oily Media

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Article in Media Matters by Zachary Pleate, 3/10/26

Headline:  “Trump’s media allies embrace oil wars”

Subhead:  “Amid encouragement from right-wing media, Trump is reportedly considering seizing Iran’s oil”

“Soon after President Donald Trump launched his war against Iran, Fox News and Newsmax personalities began talking about the possibility of Trump taking control of Iran’s oil industry, and multiple news reports now say the administration is not ruling out such a move.

“This development follows months of encouragement from right-wing media figures to do a similar takeover of Venezuela’s oil industry, which Trump embraced after taking military action to depose President Nicolás Maduro. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/trumps-media-allies-embrace-oil-wars